"Alas!"
"Well, never again."
King put down his empty glass. "Good night.
"Good night."
He went through the doorway into the open and down the steps. His footfalls crunched on the bed of the dry creek. The return of Neville overwhelmed them. The old man held a lighted lantern, and fumbled impatiently at the wick. "Where's King?" he demanded, lifting shaggy eyebrows over the top.
"Gone home a moment ago," Maud said.
"Er! I knew as much. He knows what he's about. I meant him to come with me."
"He's good company," Power said, settling again in the old seat.
"I love him," Maud said. "One moment he makes me laugh and the next he makes me think. I don't know yet whether he is a wise man or a mountebank."